by Don Case on Tuesday, September 6, 2011
"Socialism never took root in America because the
poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat,
but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires."
Attributed to john Steinbeck.
As a kid I worked delivering papers, detasseling corn,
helping my dad with car repairs and construction
for friends and neighbors, worked in Jack in the
box when it still had the head on a spring and
another greasy spoon, in a car wash and in a
machine shop making pool equipment.
Later I worked in two office desk factorys, the
first was a custom place the second made junk.
The second office furniture factory employed
a couple hundred people but only I and the Jamaican
supervisor spoke English. Customs would come and we
would be the only two left.
These were all short term jobs while in high school
and when I returned from the service. I do not
see any young people that are interested in these
jobs today except a few that want to make their own
money and are inventive enough to make up their own
jobs that are acceptable in the eyes of their peers.
I have worked forty years trimming trees in every
aspect of the job from cleanup to climber/lead man
to supervisor as civil service and now own my own
tree business of 24 years. I had as many as seven
employees working for me. In the last ten years
I have reduced my business to small jobs with one
occasional helper and consulting.
I taught Arboriculture and Landscape pruning
practices for 3 1/2 years at the local community
college. I had students that ranged from gardeners
to the city mayor (she out climbed and out trimmed
the young brassos at 55 years old).
So we witness the decline of a young work force interested
in physical labor is a major factor in the dependency
we now have on immigrant labor legal or not. The people
that are working these jobs do so because they are
better off here than at home. Central and South American
wages and living conditions are much different than here.
For that reason we can live there in relative luxury on
social security. You just have to close your eyes to
the way people live there.
What can we do as a people, not just USA-sans but
Americans North, Central and South to obtain equality
for all peoples? I see this project as the best
answer to the many problems of culture clash and
immigration imbalances. Those of you in Europe and East
Asia may have some insight into this as there are many
borders there to learn from. What works and what does
not work.
"I must go over into the interior valleys. … There
are five thousand families starving to death over
there, not just hungry but actually starving. The
government is trying to feed them and get medical
attention to them, with the Fascist group of
utilities and banks and huge growers sabotaging
the thing all along the line, and yelling for a
balanced budget.
In one tent there were twenty people quarantined
for small pox and two of the women are to have
babies in that tent this week. I've tied into the
thing format he first and I must get down there
and see it and see if I can do something to knock
these murderers on the heads. Do you know what
they're afraid of? They think that if these people
are allowed to live in camps with proper
sanitary facilities they will organize, and that
is the bugbear of the large landowner and the
corporate farmer. The states and counties will
give them nothing because they are outsiders.
But the crops of any part of this state could not
be harvested without them. … The death of children
by starvation in our valleys is simply staggering.
… I'll do what I can. … Funny how mean and little
books become in the face of such tragedies."
John Steinbeck
Letter to Elizabeth Otis (1938), as quoted in
Conversations with John Steinbeck (1988) edited
by Thomas Fensch, p. 37
No comments:
Post a Comment